One of Those Years
by Spring Zephyr
Summary: What kind of older brother forgets his younger brother's birthday? Hopefully not Akatsuki's...


**I started writing this immediately after episode nineteen came out, and tore my hand really badly on the same day... and very deep. So a lot of this was typed one-handed and I want to apologize in advance for any errors and the lack of editing.**

"Where's Zanya?"

Akatsuki's frowned deepened, because Tsukikage wasn't replying.

And because Tsukikage _always_ replied to him. It was that Tsukikage wasn't answering, because it was practically his privilege as Zanya's little brother! Every time he asked Tsukikage a question or wanted to talk to him about something, he-

"You don't think Big Z.'s actually forgotten, do you?!"

The thought occurred to Akatsuki so abruptly, it almost hurt more than if he'd been dwelling on it instead. Today was an important day. Why wouldn't Zanya want to spend it with him? It was a nice weekend and they didn't have school, but it was already going on one in the afternoon and Akatsuki was going to start running out of daylight to celebrate soon! In just a few more hours!

"Nin."

Akatsuki couldn't understand Tsukikage's normal speak, and there were no scrolls with actual words and Tsukikage's thoughts being held out for him to read either. Without the scrolls, it was like Tsukikage wasn't saying anything at all.

"A-ah... Big Bro did... say that I was getting to old for them though..."

Maybe Zanya had forgotten because he didn't think it was important, or maybe he hadn't forgotten and he was just annoyed because of what Akatsuki had asked for this year. He'd seemed really annoyed when Akatsuki had tried talking to him about it last week, and that was sort of what had prompted the "you're getting too old for birthday parties" comment in the first place – it wasn't impossible!

"But I didn't know Zanya would get that mad about it! I swear, I didn't!"

He would have just asked for something different had he known, or maybe not asked for anything at all – he was sure that would have at least pleased Zanya.

"Nin!"

Tsukikage never did anything that Zanya said he couldn't do either. If he was really, really mad, then Zanya had probably told him he couldn't talk to Akatsuki at all anymore. That would explain a lot, but it left Akatsuki frantically hoping that it wasn't the real reason. That was just too mean!

"Nin!"

Oh, but, that argument with Zanya had been at least a week ago. He and Tsukikage had definitely spoken since then, a lot of times! Even though a lot of it had been mostly generic stuff, like Zanya telling him it was time for breakfast or Zanya reminding him to finish his homework or Zanya telling him to get his butt to training, basically the kinds of messages Zanya always had Tsukikage sending for him when he was too busy doing something else to do it himself. But that still counted!

"Nin!"

Unless Zanya had actually been really mad, and he'd specifically told Tsukikage like, "You're not allowed to talk to Akatsuki on his birthday!"?! He couldn't actually imagine Zanya giving any orders like that, except his brain kept trying to imagine it anyway, even after Akatsuki willed it several times not to. Big Brother... could be really cruel sometimes.

"He wouldn't tell you to ignore me just for today – and then he completely abandoned me?!" Realizing he hadn't seen Zanya since breakfast, this was starting to seem a likely scenario. At least until Akatsuki remembered aloud, "Oh, but I dont think he'd leave his Buddy if were that mad with me either."

And with that, Akatsuki's teary-eyed expression of horror changed into a more thoughtful one. Not thoughtful enough to allow him to pay attention to his surroundings though. The Buddy knew when he was being ignored, and he also knew Akatsuki. Getting Akatsuki's attention now would have been difficult, because the boy was right about at least one thing – Tsukikage did have orders not to tell him anything today. The only thing that he could do for now was hope that Akatsuki wouldn't take too long.

"Unless he wanted to be _really_ mean, but that's not like my brother. He's the coolest, best big brother in the world, I bet he could win an award for that or something!" Definitely way cooler than Gao was, no matter what Hanako said. "And even if he was being mean, it's not like it's working, 'cause I enjoy spending time with Tsukikage anyway."

"...Nin."

"But I do wish he wouldn't forget my birthday. Or tell me that I'm too old to have birthdays, or get mad because I asked if I could have a party with my friends this year."

This was actually his first year having friends!

"At least, I think we're friends because Gao and Kiri the others kind of said we were? I even have Kiri's phone number, and they're really nice people, Tsukikage!"

Remembering that he'd also said the same thing about vice president Sofia once, right before realizing that Sofia had tricked him, he stopped to think about this for a moment. Just to make sure. Eventually, he decided that, yes, they actually were really nice, and he really enjoyed the text messages he got from Kiri too, so he continued, "I'm sure that Zanya would agree, if he just gave them a chance to prove it!"

–Nin!–

"We responded to Tsukikage's invitation by showing up, but..." Gao looked around pointedly. It irritated Zanya a little, even when he recognized that he was simply being rash and short-tempered, but the answer was just so obvious-

"He's _late_," Zanya replied.

Ignoring whatever retort Gao's younger sister was currently throwing at him, Zanya watched the short, green-haired kid fidget with his phone. "I could try calling him, if you wanted."

He knew that green-hair and Akatsuki exchanged messages sometimes, and he also had reason to believe that the only reason some of these other guys had even shown up was because green-hair had asked them too. Zanya was pretty sure that there were at least one or two among that group that must have hated him, and, in retrospect, having his Buddy attach messages to kunai knives and throw them through peoples' windows probably hadn't been the best way to ask for favors. But he hadn't quite considered how some people might not appreciate that until later, because Tsukikage had good aim and it was much easier than trying to work up the nerve to talk to people himself.

"That won't be necessary. Tsukikage was supposed to be bringing him here at noon exactly."

Zanya cut himself off there, deciding against saying something about how it was probably Akatsuki's fault for getting distracted as long as that Kuguru girl was part of the group. And _staring_ at him. She had the most intense stare, and it sent shivers down his spine just thinking about it. He quickly turned away and pretended that he hadn't noticed.

"It might give away the surprise, yo!"

"Oh... that's a good point, I'm sorry."

He wouldn't have admitted it, but Zanya was glad that somebody else had pointed that out. If he hadn't wanted it to be a surprise, he wouldn't have sent Akatsuki away and ordered Tsukikage not to tell him anything in the first place.

He caught himself checking the time again, for about the fourth time that minute. Not to mention all of the other times in the last minutes. Tsukikage was going on about twelve minutes late now, which was exactly twelve minutes later than his Buddy usually was at completing tasks whenever Zanya asked him to do something. At this point Zanya might as well have kept his eyes glued to the closest clock, because he was spending far more time staring at that than he was anything else. He was also well aware that he was not the only one who'd noticed his... anxiety, impatience, whatever they wanted to call that, unless that was just his nerves again, only making it feel like everyone else was staring at him in return.

There wasn't much to look at around here though, so it wasn't unlikely. It was more traditional than city houses, like Gao's, an imitation made from modern materials instead of the traditional thin woods, roofs made from wood and clay and tiles and sliding doors made from paper. There was even a garden in the back, which was where they were all standing right now, and behind that were the trees. Lots of trees; a forest large enough for ninja to train in.

Zanya didn't hate it. Actually, he rather enjoyed living where he did because it was quiet and conveniently away from the city's hectic noises, but he couldn't think of it as anything special either. To a bunch of kids from the city, there probably wasn't anything interesting out here, even after Kiri had tossed around a few light decorations.

Another minute crawled past before Zanya finally became sick of waiting. He was sure that nothing had happened to them, but... "I'm going to go see if I can't find them."

It was conveniently right after Zanya said it that the group heard a shrill scream coming from above, and then Tsukikage dropped in, holding Akatsuki in his arms and bringing a shower of leaves down with him.

Thirteen minutes late.

Zanya grit his teeth, finding it harder than expected to be happy. _Punctuality_ would have made him happy. It wasn't like he'd been planning to make everyone hide before Akatsuki arrived, so that they could all jump out and yell "Surprise!" or something – it was embarrassing to even think about doing something that lame, even though Akatsuki would've loved it – he just wished his brother could appreciate the value of being on time also.

That changed once he saw Akatsuki's face though, any possible reason he would have had to feel angry melting away as soon as Akatsuki began looking around. Tsukikage placed him back on the ground, eyes widening and he took in the situation. Then he grinned and Zanya followed suit, despite himself, thinking that, yes, he'd done a good thing after all.

"B-big Bro...!"

Tears cut off the rest of what Akatsuki had been about to say. His brother always had been kind of a crybaby, at least more so than Zanya could remember himself being when he was that age, so he'd kind of expected this would happen. Apparently, he was the only one who had, because almost everyone else just looked _concerned_.

"Is he gonna be all right?"

"Those are tears of joy."

Akatsuki was currently too busy sniffling to confirm, leaving Gao staring at him, apparently unconvinced from Zanya's words alone. "...Are you sure?"

"He has a weird way of crying."

He only did it all of the time!

Feeling kind of annoyed at having to answer questions for Gao and company, Zanya turned on heel and stalked off. Quickly. Before that Kuguru girl could catch up to him and try confronting him again, like she usually did every time Zanya managed to annoy her – he was doing this for Akatsuki, so he didn't want to risk ruining it somehow.

**This was intended to be much longer, but this is as far as Zephyr can go right now. Sorry... if I continued it from here, I don't think I could finish before my self-imposed deadline. Try waiting a few weeks or maybe pestering Underdog Hero to write the rest for me! Underdog should know most of the notes for this already, even though I had planned to change a few parts- um, just kidding. It would be rude to do that.**

**Fanfiction written by the FuKaze Hiro team are the best though. But in case neither of us gets to finishing, I hope this is at least decent on its own?**


End file.
